(a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an accessory for a musical string instrument and more particularly but not by way of limitation to a fulcrum for mounting on the side of a guitar, a banjo and like string instruments.
(b) Discussion of Prior Art
Heretofore, there have been a variety of different types of attachments for musical string instruments. In U.S. Pat. No. 491,755 to Le Valley, an arm rest and support for guitars is described. The support is designed to rest the right arm thereon and allow the left arm to be free to perform fingering without holding a portion of the weight of the guitar. There is no teaching in this patent of an adjustable fulcrum for holding a guitar player's lower arm in a passive position to prevent plodding during the playing of the musical instrument.
In U.S. Pat. No. 914,660 to Hartnett and U.S. Pat. No. 1,020,491 to Gough, a hand support and an arm rest for banjo players are described. These patents do not disclose the use of an adjustable fulcrum for a lower arm of a banjo player. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,753,006 to Haaf and U.S. Pat. No. 3,619,470 to Harris, a wrist support and a hand position device for violinists are described. Again these two patents do not teach the use of an adjustable fulcrum for attachment to the side of the musical string instrument.
In the study of a right hand technique related to the playing of a guitar, an important area of emphasis is often overlooked. This area of emphasis is fulcrum placement of the arm on the hip of the body of the guitar and active and passive resources related to the hand and the optimal effective use of the hand when playing the instrument. A Fulcrum is defined in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary as a prop or a support used as a wedge about which a lever turns. More specifically, a fulcrum in regards to the right hand technique is the forearm placement on the side of the guitar at a specific point of contact. The forearm maintaining contact with the wood of the guitar which allows leverage and transference of weight. A metaphor would be a wheel of a wheelbarrow maintaining contact with a ground surface at a specific point. The wheel itself is the fulcrum while a handle on the wheelbarrow provides the range of motion.
Active resources are specifically defined as the degree of effort required by the muscles to overcome a certain resistance or gravity to maintain hand and arm positioning. In other words, active resources involves increasing tension in the muscles of the arm, wrist and hand. Passive resources are defined as using less muscular tension in the playing wrist and hand. The more the muscles of the entire arm can relax the more efficient and faster the muscle contractions and flexing in the playing fingers can occur.
A guitar pedagogy of Ricardo Iznaola describes two basic and general views on fulcrum positioning. A first view is described as the short arm approach. The placement of the fulcrum on the short arm approach is found approximately midway between the elbow and the wrist on the highest point on the side of the guitar. The point of contact becomes like a "teeter-totter" working one way and then the other. The bigger mechanism (i.e. back of the fulcrum towards the elbow, biceps, and triceps) acts upon the fulcrum in a specific manner. Since the majority of the weight rests behind the fulcrum towards the elbow, the effect on the hand is that the point of repose uses passive resources, or has a balanced state of the hand being in the air and not on the strings. Using the analogy of the teeter-totter, the elbow is the "bigger" child and thus creates a balanced passive positioning of the hand in the air above the strings. Since the natural point of repose for the hand is in the air, active resources are needed to bring it downwardly and into contact with the strings. Therefore, flexion of the wrist is required to bring the hand into contact with the strings and active resources are required to maintain hand positioning. Effort or flexion is also required to maintain contact with the strings, thus creating tension. This approach uses constant flexion and tension in the wrists which requires constant use of active resources. Although this approach is very useful, extreme caution must be given in regards to the degree of active resources used to maintain arm position and the dysfunctional tension that flexing produces in the wrist.
A second view on fulcrum positioning is termed the long arm approach. The fulcrum in the long arm approach is found approximately 1 inch from the elbow in the direction of the hand. The fulcrum on this approach again is found on the highest point on the side of the body of the guitar. A major difference in the long arm approach when compared to the short arm approach is that the long arm approach does not allow the teeter-totter like effect as in the short arm approach. Instead the fulcrum acts more like the fulcrum in the example of the wheelbarrow, thus projecting the weight towards the strings and allowing the point of repose, or relaxation and state of rest, to be on the strings instead of upwardly in the air. This approach uses more passive resources. The muscles of the entire right arm are allowed to more completely relax so the propitious weight upon the strings is achieved by the fingers using rest strokes and free strokes. More efficient manipulation of weight in playing and connecting stroke types is greatly increased if the muscles continue to draw upon their passive resources.
Another major difference is the degree of relaxation in the wrists. Since no effort or flexion is needed from the wrist in the long arm approach to maintain contact with the strings, the wrist is more relaxed, less flexed and greatly reduces the muscular tension in the wrists. In fact, because the wrist is so relaxed, a slight "listing" or tilting downward is created.
Therefore, a main issue when comparing the two techniques is where is the weight distribution of the playing hand/arm and how to control it. In the long arm approach, the weight of the hand goes forward and eventually to the strings using passive resources to maintain hand positioning. In the short arm approach, the weight rests backwards and active resources are involved to maintain handarm playing position. So one's musculature counteracts those tendencies for the measure of technical competence.
The ideal positioning of the right arm using the long arm approach is achieved when PIMA is placed on strings 4, 3, 2 and 1. PIMA being right hand finger symbols derived from Spanish. The letters "P" for pulgar or thumb, "I" for indicio or index finger, "M" for medio or middle finger and "A" for anular or ring finger. The right hand is placed on these strings in respective order towards the portion of the sound hole closest to the bridge of the guitar. This portion of the sound hole called herein the "sweet spot". Playing the strings closest to the "sweet spot" produces a "standard" tone used by classical guitarist. It also provides for increased volume clarity and projection of the sounds from the guitar. Ideally the fulcrum will then be found at the widest portion of the hip of the guitar and 1 inch from the elbow towards the wrist. The shoulders of the musician will be horizontal and parallel with the floor so the elbow rests at the long arm fulcrum and there is a gently slope downward from the elbow-forearm-hand to a normal free stroke positioning of PIMA on strings 4, 3, 2 and 1, in respective order over the sweet spot. This is the ideal positioning, or poised positioning of the limb in regards to the long arm approach. The "ideal" positioning exists for those players who are approximately 5'10". A classical guitar is designed more readily to accommodate players of that size. For over a hundred years, this has been the standard size of the classical guitar.
When examining a "normal" hand/arm position for people who have bigger and/or longer forearms and hands and are above the approximate height standard of 5 feet 10 inches problems occur. In fact, an extreme height difference of 6 feet 3 inches may be used to illustrate "normal" free stroke positioning for large and tall players. An example might be that typically someone who is 5 feet 10 inches tall will typically have a forearm length from elbow to wrist in a range of 9 to 10 inches plus 3 inches from the wrist to the first knuckles in the hand. A player who is taller than 6 feet will typically have a forearm length from elbow to wrist in a range of 11 to 12 inches plus 3 to 4 inches from the wrist to the first knuckles in the hand. Also, players may have longer hands and fingers which will influence the proper positioning of the fingers on the strings next to the "sweet spot" of the sound hole.
A player who is 6 feet 3 inches who may have long hands and fingers and who chooses to employ the long arm technique encounters many difficulties when using this approach. For example, using the previous guidelines for placement of the fulcrum on the hip of the body of the guitar places the hand above the sound hole next to the frets and not next to the "standard" position or the "sweet spot". The "sweet spot" being above a lower portion of the sound hole. Therefore, this is unacceptable positioning for the playing hand. Standard guitar tone colors, clarity and volume are achieved when the fingers are positioned on the strings over the "sweet spot" of the sound hole.
In order for a player, whose stature is 6 feet 3 inches, to achieve proper hand positioning over the sound hole several concessions are made. First the fulcrum must be lowered from the hip of the body of the guitar. The resulting action is a change in the angle of the forearm in relation to the strings. The shoulder is also lowered from the horizontal to accommodate this new position resulting in an imbalance of "poise" or parallelism of the shoulders. The main problem is that because of this lowered elbow positioning a bigger forearm mechanism is no longer supporting a smaller hand mechanism. In other words, instead of having balanced "poised" shoulders, and having the direction of the limbs gravitate steadily downwards to the strings, the wrist becomes higher than the elbow. This increases the amount of effort and muscular tension in the forearm and in turn the fingers thereby decreasing flexibility of the fingers and decreasing muscle fiber contraction and speed and once again active resources are used to maintain this positioning.
Another problem encountered in this positioning of the elbow downwardly from the hip of the body of the guitar is that all the energy that is stored in the forearm tendons and fingers when applied to the strings are transferred onto the strings. In other words "bigger" people or people with long forearms and long hands and fingers tend to "plod" on the guitar in this position. This is a direct result of holding too much energy and muscular tension in the forearm and fingers and transferring the energy to the string whenever a finger stroke type is produced. An easier to understand analogy can be applied to the piano. It would be similar to a pianist who had 5lb. weights attached to the top of his or her wrists. Every time a key would be struck, the weight would be transferred to the key producing a louder "plodding" sound.
Second, if a player continues to use the highest point or the hips on the body of the guitar as the fulcrum for the long arm approach, the only way of playing "over" the sound hole is to create an extreme angle between the hand and the forearm. This positioning creates tension in the wrist and can be very painful.
Since the classical guitar size has been standardized for over 100 years, bigger classical guitars are unavailable for the taller player or the player with long arms and hands. They simply are not mass-produced. Until now, the only solution for the tall player or the player with long forearms and hands has been to employ the short arm approach using active resources, deal with the problems created by the long arm approach, or commission a guitar luthier to customize a guitar to that player's special fulcrum. Large individuals adjust their stature/physique to the guitar. The ideal solution is that the guitar should rise to meet the player in the long arm approach. On anyone above 5 feet 10 inches, this fulcrum is found at a different height adjustment above the body of the guitar. Since custom guitars are out of the price range for the average player or beginner, the only solution in the past has been for the large guitarist to adapt to the guitar. Since classical guitarists tend to be traditionalists, the larger guitar option is usually dismissed.
Another major problem large and tall individuals and players with long forearms and long hands and fingers encounter with the classical guitar in the long arm approach is being able to distinguish and to develop an awareness of the minimal amounts of effort needed from the right hand fingers to properly play the guitar. If one is constantly holding muscular tension in the forearm tendons, which transfers to the fingers, a more relaxed "poised" limb is impossible to achieve mainly due to this held tension in the limb. Achieving a balanced sense of "poise" for the body is the answer for large framed individuals who wish to pursue virtuositic levels of playing. The solution is to adjust the fulcrum on these individuals, and again the height adjustment from the hips of the body of the guitar fulcrum is different for every individual's height.